Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
ONI Blog: Syrian Telecom Minister: The answer is raising awareness, not censorship
According to Sada Souria, Syrian Telecom Minister, Imad Saboni, said in a recent lecture at Tishreen University that he personally believes that “effectively raising awareness of the dangers of the internet is the answer, not blocking websites.” Saboni alluded...
- Posted on 08/Dec/2010; tagged in Syria, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Legislation, Political filtering, Social filtering
Report: Internet Filtering in Azerbaijan 2006-2007
Note: a newer version of this profile is available at Country Profiles: Azerbaijan.
Download as PDF
Overview
The Internet in Azerbaijan remains free from restrictions despite the government’s (at times) heavy-handed approach to dealing with political opposition. Azerbaijan has a growing Internet population,...
- Posted on 17/Nov/2010; tagged in Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Publications
ONI Blog: Saudi Arabia Blocks Facebook For Hours Over Moral Concerns
On Saturday, Facebook was blocked for several hours in Saudi Arabia after the government deemed it morally inappropriate in accordance with the country’s conservative values, according to PC Magazine. Several news sites have quoted officials claiming the social...
- Posted on 14/Nov/2010; tagged in Saudi Arabia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Take-down, ONI, Social filtering
ONI Blog: Sex-Positive vb.ly Taken Down by Libyan Domain Provider
URL shortening website vb.ly has been disabled by Libyan authorities after domain registry NIC.ly (also known as Lybia Spider) ruled that it had violated its terms and conditions. Headed by Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue since August 2009,...
- Posted on 10/Oct/2010; tagged in Libya, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Obscenity, Take-down, Data retention, Internet tools filtering, DNS tampering
Report: Policing Content in the Quasi-Public Sphere
September 2010
Authored by Jillian C. York, with contributions from Robert Faris and Ron Deibert, and editorial assistance from Rebekah Heacock
To view this bulletin as a PDF, click here.
Introduction
Online conversations today exist primarily in the realm of social media and blogging platforms,...
- Posted on 20/Sep/2010; tagged in United States/Canada, Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Europe, Human rights, Publications, ONI, Social filtering, Overblocking
ONI Blog: United Arab Emirates Arrests Activists, Bans BlackBerry Services
On July 29th, Reporters Sans Frontiers reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) arrested one BlackBerry user, detained another, and are pursuing five activists. The activists were planning a protest via BlackBerry Messenger against the increasing price of gasoline, and, unable...
- Posted on 01/Aug/2010; tagged in United Arab Emirates, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Arrests and legal action, Surveillance, Privacy, Conflict and security filtering, Filtering tech and software
ONI Blog: Turkish Citizens Take To The Streets Over Internet Freedoms
Outrage and concern finally boiled over in Istanbul on Saturday as thousands took to the streets in protest of Turkey’s Internet Censorship policy.
Physical protests of Internet policy are really a never-before-seen occurance, even with all the twists and turns of cyberspace regulation...
ONI Blog: Lebanese Facebook Users Arrested for Defaming President
On June 28th, The Guardian, Menassat, L'Orient Le Jour, and the AFP reported that Lebanon arrested 3 individuals (Naim George Hanna, Antoine Youssef Ramia, Shebel Rajeh Qasab), and Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza issued an arrest warrant for a...
- Posted on 06/Jul/2010; tagged in Lebanon, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Arrests and legal action, Defamation
ONI Blog: Stop This Law - Internet Regulation, Surveillance, and VOIP in Lebanon
Global Voices Online and the Social Media Exchange (SMEX) report that Lebanese activists organizing under the slogan Stop The Vote have managed to postpone parliamentary voting for one month (starting June 15) on what they see as a...
- Posted on 21/Jun/2010; tagged in Lebanon, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Legislation, Surveillance
ONI Blog: #Flotilla Censored?
Tweeters and observers The Guardian, TechCrunch, and The Arabist have been wondering if Twitter censored hashtag #Flotilla and search term "flotilla" when it began trending on Sunday night. #Flotilla refers to a group of aid ships sailing to...
- Posted on 02/Jun/2010; tagged in Israel, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Take-down, Search result removal, Political filtering
